Dexterous Robotics - Special Projects

Internships are educational hands-on opportunities that provide unique NASA-related research and operational experiences for undergraduate and graduate students (age 16 and up). To learn more, visit https://intern.nasa.gov.

Background: The Robotics Technology Development Branch at NASA Johnson Space Center is advancing robotic manipulation systems to support future lunar missions and space exploration. These systems will enable critical operations such as site preparation, logistics, maintenance, science during uncrewed periods, and human-robot collaboration. The focus is on developing autonomous capabilities for robotic manipulators, ensuring safe human-robot interaction, and improving coordination between manipulators and their host platforms, such as rovers and satellites.

Interns will contribute to developing hardware, firmware, and software for robotic manipulation systems, bridging the gap between current terrestrial technologies and future space robotics. This includes avionics design, high-performance computing, control systems, dynamic modeling, and robotics software development.

Ideal Candidate Skills: Technical Skills: - PCB design using Altium for robotic systems. - Integration and testing of sensors, actuators, motors, and gear-trains. - Embedded software development for FPGAs and MCUs, Linux software driver development. - Hardware Description Languages (HDL) for custom logic design (VHDL; Verilog; System Verilog). - Programming in ROS 2 using C++ or Python. - Development and testing of control algorithms for robotic manipulation. - Experience with Core Flight System (cFS) for flight-qualified software. - Modeling robotic systems using Matlab or Python.

Nontechnical Skills: - Problem-solving and analytical thinking. - Creativity and innovation in technical design. - Effective collaboration in multidisciplinary teams. - Strong communication skills for reporting and presenting findings.

Learning and Goals: Interns will gain hands-on experience in developing advanced robotic manipulation systems for space applications. They will learn to design and implement hardware and software solutions, integrate sensors and actuators, and develop control algorithms. Interns will also build expertise in dynamic modeling, flight-qualified software, and autonomous system development. By the end of the internship, participants will have enhanced their technical skills, contributed to cutting-edge space robotics projects, and gained a deeper understanding of robotics for space exploration.